According to former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Gregory Jaczko, all 104 nuclear reactors in the United States currently have irreparable safety issues and should be shut down and replaced. Jaczko was the NRC chairman from 2009 through 2012.

According to former U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) chairman Gregory Jaczko, all 104 nuclear reactors in the United States currently have irreparable safety issues and should be shut down and replaced.

Jaczko was the NRC chairman from 2009 through 2012, when he resigned following conflicts with colleagues. During his tenure, Jaczko pushed for stricter safety improvements.

[…]

RT reports that according to Jaczko, U.S. reactors which have been granted permission from the NRC to operated for another twenty years past their original 40-year licenses, are not likely to last much longer. Jaczko opposed the commission’s proposal for a second twenty year extension, which means that some reactors could be in operation for a total of eighty years.

Jaczko’s comments could be significant because the government is considering a mass retirement of old reactors, and current nuclear policy is mostly focused on maintaining existing reactors rather than going through the demanding political and bureaucratic process of securing licenses and financing to start construction on new plants.

[…]

All the U.S. civilian reactors have been built before 1974, and the economic recession, combined with the Three Mile Island incident in 1979, have brought new reactor building to a halt.

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